Nethergoat

I hear ya Sam, but the in an MMO there's going to be stuff that's gated, and whatever that is will really anger SOMEbody out there. You hate it being costumes, someone else might hate it being badges or what have you- whatever choice they make it's going to make some folk mad.

But I have a feeling the point here is moot- costume drops were a failed experiment and now they have a store to distribute that kind of stuff. And I'm with you that the current selection of costume drops should just be added to the tailor- they're all so common getting them isn't any sort of challenge, it's just a tediously pointless timesink.


My characters costumes are in a perpetual state of flux as they gain access to new bits of costumery....your inflexibility seems strange and alien.

But, as noted, basically moot as they're extremely unlikely to expand a system that managed to anger both RP costume nuts and in-game market enthusiasts. =P

I suspect this is at the core of most of these sorts of debates- a philosophical opposition to tiered access, period.

But again, that's the nature of the beast- it's just how MMO's work.


This whole thread is reminding me of right before they added the in-game market and some folk were really up in arms about how it was going to 'ruin' what made CoH special and they should find some other more creative systemic timesink.

Sure they could have tried some bold new system, but the went with a crafting/game economy model because it was proven and it works.

Same here- they could have found some wonderful creative new type of carrot to dangle in our faces, but they went with the simple option they knew would work.

I see no entitlement in your posts, just rational discussion of the issues.
Would that the OP shared your approach to this topic.

I suspect this aspect of vet rewards contributed to their decision to make costumes one of the VIP carrots. The screaming, wailing and gnashing of teeth over the vet gated costume parts was tremendous...and let's be honest, they weren't really anything to write home about.

But that uproar, combined with the hysteria around costume drops when they were first released and were actually rare, desirable items, gave them some inkling of how highly this playerbase values costume sets.

Prior to the introduction of the Paragon Market what drove the sale of boosters? Hint: not 'Shadowy Presence'. =P


I don't buy this argument, which I've battled ad nauseum on the Market forums over the years.

If an option is available, and you desire it, then earn it.
If that spoils your fun.....then what are you doing playing an MMO, a genre where desire and accquisition are the engines that keep the whole enterprise moving?

And unlike the old Vet system (which required a potentially huge time investment, depending on what you wanted) or the in-game market (which requires earing in-game currency), the Paragon Market provides instant gratification.

There are an infinity of things they could have used to incentivize the VIP system- they chose costumes.

Given that decision (based, one imagines, not on whimsy but hard data regarding player desires and behaviors), how would following the OP's suggestion benefit their bottom line right now?

Well, it wouldn't.

We can suppose a wide variety of other systems to replace the one currently in place, but the history of the game exposes those fantasies for the daydreams they are.

Maybe in another five years, if it's still around, we'll get another big system overhaul. In the short term? They got the system they wanted, and we need to accept it on its own terms.

I've been subscribed far longer than you and don't like that all the junk I 'earned' the hard way under the original system was suddenly made available to any n00b off the street- but oh well, that's life!

The devs decided it was better for the bottom line (and thus the survival of the game) to monetize them in a different way, and inasmuch as the continued survival of the game is important to me I have to let go of my personal preferences and get on board.

Ain't that the truth.

I've already explained the logic of having a back catalog to draw on- remember the Disney archives?

Like those archives, large scale changes to the MMO landscape may well inspire a wider release of VIP sets in the future, as massive changes inspired the current F2P revolution...but for now keeping them exclusive while adding more exclusive items to the catalog is just smart business.

Maybe a better metaphor, given that we're talking costume parts, is the fashion industry.

The stuff they just give away is the Prêt-à-porter, or 'ready to wear' stuff that is mass produced for department stores. The intent is mostly functional, wide distribution assures availability to anyone interested.

The VIP stuff is equivalent to Haute Coture, special items intended to promote a line, entrance high rollers and become collectible. There's no point in the fashion houses making them less expensive or more widely available- that's not their function in the system.

Likewise, it isn't the function of VIP costume sets to be casually, widely available.

Indeed.

Although I have zero love for Stateman and still don't see the logic in changing the badge. The reality for my characters who have it is they rescued Statesman- my opinion of the character is irrelevant, it's an act they performed, a badge they earned and ti shouldn't be messed with absent some sort of vitally compelling reason.

I haven't seen any reason at all given thus far, let alone a compelling one.

And as I said, you have no real argument beyond an overweening sense of entitlement.

You're not getting what you want, sorry.

Mirror, mirror....

I've read all your posts and haven't seen much beyond "I want this thing I'm not yet qualified to have, please change the rules to suit me, TIA!"

Why should they give you what you want when the current system suits their needs admirably?

What's in it for them, in other words.



They overhauled the system because the entire business model of the game was drastically re-imagined. The old way of inspiring account loyalty (time gating certain rewards) was replaced by a new system, gating by either time or a substantial financial investment.

Unless you forsee a similar drastic re-engineering in the near future, this gate seems like to be in place quite as long as the previous one.

Not implying their re-imagining was perfect, but it seems, so far anyway, to have been meticulously well thought out.

An entitlement whine is an entitlement whine, whatever your reg date.

The question as to why they should un-gate something so specifically and carefully gated has yet to be answered.

Not getting your point here.

They've pretty much always released free costume bits along with paid or gated stuff.

VIP is a new way to gate stuff, one that they're using.

I understand you want the stuff, but you haven't made a compelling (or any, really) argument as to why they ought to give it to you.


Then get to Tier 9.
Either keep subbing and wait, or speed things up and buy in.

Prior to Freedom if you wanted any of the Vet Reward stuff your only option was to stay subscribed and wait to become eligible. The current system strikes me as more than fair, and yet you still complain.

*shrug*

Why should they?
Please make the case as to why it's in the best financial interest of the game to follow your suggestion.

Pulled up my window, hit 'find contact', it popped up a gent named Graham Easton and offered to teleport me to his location.

THANK YOU, QOL UPGRADES!!!

And how many of those existed before the implimentation of Freedom?
Presumably at least some would be VIP only options if they were introduced to the game today, with the store & tier system in place.


They see VIP tier costumes as stuff only VIPs should get, most certainly.

MMO's aren't really my first resort when I'm looking for a deep, involving storyline. I'm happiest when there's just enough plot to provide some context to my character's actions, but not so much that I'm missing out by not reading the clues and TL/DR'ing most of the contact dialog.

Awesome maps & cool gameplay, on the other hand...THAT'S what I'm here for!

I like having stuff to chase and desire, and that is an important ingredient to these sorts of games.

I want more stuff to covet the way you want more options....or rather, we both want more options, but I'm less hung up on instant gratification.

One of my favorite sayings in various market threads over the years has been "the only real currency in the game is time", so I'm already halfway on your side here.

But then you lost me.

If we accept that VIP Tier 9 Costumery is a carrot to incentivize subscriptions (which we do all seem to agree on), opening it up to just anyone, *whenever they do it*, is contrary to their own best interests.

The *point* of them is that players, one way or another, spend substantially for access- either by maintaining a subscription for many years (like yours truly) or by dropping a bundle on Paragon Points.

And looking forward, by not issuing them generally they build up incentives for future subscription revenue. Like Disney back in the pre-digital age, when they'd re-release their movies every few years and people would race to snap up Fantasia or whatever before they took it back off the market. They leveraged that exclusivity into a reliable source of ongoing profit.

Keeping them exclusive gives them a library of (hopefully) desirable items they can recycle in the future, or release concurrently with whatever the 'new' set of the moment is.


Not saying that at some point they might not add the VIP stuff to the 'ala carte' menu- after all Disney wasn't able to maintain their model of exclusivity in the face of the digital revolution- but it doesn't make any business sense right now.

I can see why you want them, but I can also see why Paragon set things up as they did.

the whole 'incarnate' thing's never really done it for me- I 'worked' on the Goat for bit, noticed it *felt* like work and went back to playing my alts.

*thumbsup*

They should give you some bonus Paragon Points for making up my mind to re-sub. =P

HAHA!

it's funny 'cause it's true.....

quick question, how does one go about "buying" Tier 9?
I'm already there thanks to my seven-ish years of support, but I keep seeing references to people just purchasing it- how does that work?

Good point - this may well be the straw that breaks the back of the re-subscription camel...

As a player with a longstanding grudge against Jack Emmert and very little investment in CoH's 'pantheon characters' (CoV's rogues gallery is more my cuppa), cruelty may well be in the eye of the beholder.

Poor text editing is another matter, but I've been waffling on a re-sub anyway- as part of a package deal I could probably overlook it.

I've seen so many END OF THE WORLD!'s here I ought to change my name to The Watcher.